Wednesday, 8 January 2014

Ganjam and its French connection

In an earlier post, we had
covered the guava fruits of Ganjam, the small village just two kilometers off
Srirangapatna, the island capital of Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan.

After the death of Tipu Sultan on May 4, 1799 in Srirangapatna,
Shehar Ganjam-the City that he founded was taken over by the British. However, today
Ganjam is known for its French connection and not British and all thanks to Abbe
J.A. Dubois or Jean-Antoine Dubois, the French missionary.

Abbe Dubois (1765-1848) was a
French Catholic and he had come to India in 1792 as a member of the
Missions Etrangeres de Paris. He first came
to Pondicherry
and then to Srirangapatna in 1799 to reorganise the Christian community.

Apart from being a
missionary, Dubois founded agricultural colonies and was instrumental in introducing
vaccination as a preventive method to control smallpox.

He also wrote down a record
of Hindu manners, customs and ceremonies. He gave up European society and adopted
the native style of clothing, and dressed himself very much like a Hindu.

He would go around Srirangapatna,
Ganjam and surrounding areas in the garb of sanyasi. Like a Hindu monk, he abstained from eating meat and this
continued for several years.

Locals of MysoreKingdom, used to seeing
him in Indian style dress and in local manners
affectionately called him Dodda Swamiyoru.

He established “The
Immaculate Conception Church (AbbeDuboisChurch)
at Ganjam where he lived for 30 years.
The church today has a 15-feet high bell tower. Adjacent to the bell tower is a
small memorial structure (house) which is believed to be the hermitage of the
Padri Abbe Dubois.

He also founded a school for the children of Ganjam
village.
The school is at the rear side of the Church and it can be said to be Ganjam’s
oldest school.

Since Dubois followed local customs
and tradition, he was highly popular. He
was fond of raagi mudde and he had no hesitation in joining farmers for their
work in fields.

Abbe Dubois had learnt all south
Indian languages, including Kannada. He knew Sanskrit too. He left India for France
in January, 1823 where he became the Superior
of the Christian order that he represented.

What sets out this missionary
from the rest of his ilk is his frank
confession in his “Letters on the State of Christianity
in India”
that Hindus might never convert to Christianity.